Everyone should understand that even when you browse the Internet in the privacy of your own home, some one could be watching your every move. No, they are not right there in the room with you looking over your shoulder, but every site that you visit, download or post messages to is being monitored. There is a saying “caveat emptorlet the buyer beware.” It is time to apply that phrase to cyber-technology“browser beware.”

Privacy Laws and Principles

How is the information that has been obtained in previous offline databases and that which you have voluntarily supplied to online databases being used? What laws, rules or principles govern the Internet so that your personal information is not being misused and abused?

Abused by whomthe private sector or the government? It is the private sector; marketing firms and what is known as e-commerce and not the government that are moving by leaps and bounds to acquire and use personal information about individuals based on the almighty dollar.

The government at least has restrictions on how it can obtain information about you. The United States Constitution doesn’t grant a right to privacy, but the Supreme Court has interpreted sections of the Constitution to protect different aspects of individual privacy. The Fourth Amendment provides the strongest protection which protects the right of the people to be secure in their persons, places, papers and effects from unwarranted searches and seizures by the government.8 Marketing companies don’t need a warrant before they can create an online profile of you, but law enforcement agencies would need to obtain a warrant to tap into your online activities.

“The traditional rights of privacy focused on creating a zonea house or a personthat was protected from intrusion by the government except under specified circumstances.”9 Privacy in the information age has been described as “the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about themselves is communicated to others.”10 “The laws of economics in the information age say that information has value,”11 and as long as Big Business can get away with self-regulation, they will rule. Why, because the “U.S. government does not have a legally enforceable privacy policy for the private sector,”12 and they are in no hurry to get one. According to Jaime Love of The Consumer Project on Technology, politicians from both parties are dragging their feet on the privacy issue because they want to continue to remain in the good graces of Big Business for the campaign contributions.13

The U.S. government has admitted that they do not want to stifle e-commerce, but there is a need for regulations that all companies must follow so there is consistency in what is acceptable and what is not. A lot of tracking is not disclosed and even if it is, it is being shared in many cases without consumer consent. The sharing of personal information is profitable to a business and to stay competitive more and more businesses will do it.

Some of the laws that have been passed include:

In 1966 Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act which provides a way for citizens to request information about the operation of government and what the government is doing with all the information it collects. The government does maintain the right to refuse to release information related to national security, intelligence activities, criminal cases and other areas.14

In 1972 the Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems to the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare stated basic principles for protecting privacy in the Information Age. They include disclosure of information-gathering activities, the right of individuals to correct information about them, and guarantees for accuracy and control of disclosure of information.15

The Privacy Act of 1974 was passed to make government agencies disclose their information-gathering and distribution activities and to give citizens the opportunity to learn what information has been collected about them and to correct any errors.16

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 was passed to prohibit the unauthorized interception of all electronic communications stored or in transit to include computer data transmissions and e-mail.17

Congress also passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 which prevents Web sites from gathering personal information about children without parental consent.18

We are a society that is accustomed to regulations; and with the Internet being as powerful as it is, and with the threat it poses to privacy and even our identity, it needs to be regulated. But the federal government is not ready to pass a lot of regulations governing online privacy. It argues along with big businesses that technology, namely, the Internet, is developing far too rapidly to be enclosed in a web of regulations.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore published a 21-page report entitled “A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce”. It states:

. . . Commerce on the Internet could total tens of billions of dollars by the turn of the century. For this potential to be realized fully, governments must adopt a non-regulatory, market-oriented approach to electronic commerce . . .

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Governments can have a profound effect on the growth of commerce on the Internet. By their actions, they can facilitate electronic trade or inhibit it. Knowing when to act andat least as importantwhen not to act, will be crucial to the development of electronic commerce.

In June of 1995, the Privacy Working Group of the United States Government Information Infrastructure Task Force issued a report entitled, PRIVACY AND THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE: Principles for Providing and Using Personal Information. The report recommends a set of principles (the “Privacy Principles”) to govern the collection, processing, storage, and re-use of personal data in the information age . . .

If privacy concerns are not addressed by industry through self-regulation and technology, the Administration will face increasing pressure to play a more direct role in safeguarding consumer choice regarding privacy online . . .

The Administration considers data protection critically important. We believe that private efforts of industry working in cooperation with consumer groups are preferable to government regulation, but if effective privacy protection cannot be provided in this way, we will re-evaluate this policy . . .19

Clinton does say the Privacy Working Group report recommends, and the key word here is “recommends,” because what is recommended does not have to be followed, especially when big business is looking out for its own interest and how much money can be made in doing so. These guidelines are good but very basic in nature, and the committee does state that they have limitations and are not enforceable by law. The principles written to educate the private citizen should be taken to heart, because if we care about our personal information privacy we are the ones who will take this information seriously.

The PRIVACY AND THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE: PRINCIPLES FOR PROVIDING AND USING PERSONAL INFORMATION report published in June, 1995 by the Privacy Working Group clearly states:

The “Principles for Providing and Using Personal Information” (“the Principles”) are offered to respond to this new information environment. The Principles attempt to provide meaningful guidance.

The limitations inherent in any such principles must be recognized. The Principles do not have the force of law and do not create any substantive or procedural right enforceable at law . . .20

The report outlines the general principles for all national information infrastructure participants, principles for users of personal information, principles for individuals who provide personal information and empowerment principles for individuals to safeguard their own privacy.

All of this, of course, sounds very good in theory or on paper if it were being properly practiced by the private sector on the various web sites, but that is not the case.